Amazing dog detects breast cancer in owner

Max alerted his owner to her breast cancer even when her mammogram came back negative.

My dogs are experts at knowing when someone in our house is about to have a snack. Even before I head to the kitchen, they come running from all directions with the hope that some table scraps will make their way to the floor.

It's a pretty good trick. But it's nothing like the feat recently accomplished by a dog named Max, who successfully sniffed out cancer in his owner, even before it showed up on her mammogram.

As Max's owner, Maureen Burns, tells it, when her 9-year-old collie-mix started acting strangely, she initially thought it was Max who was sick. Her normally hyper and happy dog became lethargic and depressed. He also started acting strangely, sniffing at her breast and then backing off with what Burns described as a "sad look in his eyes." Burns did have a small lump in that breast, but her most recent mammogram had been clear. Still, she went to her health care provider and after several tests was told once again that she was fine.

But Max's odd behavior persisted, and Burns felt sure that he was trying to tell her something. So she went once again to the doctor and asked for a biopsy of the lump in her breast. It was only then that Burns learned that the lump was in fact cancerous.

When she returned home, Burns says that Max's behavior completely returned to normal.

"He put his nose across my breast to check where the operation had been and was wagging his tail and his eyes were happy," Burns said in the video. "I love Max, and I owe him so much."